Homeless man tries to plead to 1990 murder in South Providence

PROVIDENCE — Three days after going to Providence police, a homeless man told a District Court judge on Monday that he was ready to plead to the murder of an Army veteran in South Providence — nearly 24...

Comment

By
AMANDA MILKOVITS
Posted Dec. 30, 2013 @ 9:48 pm

PROVIDENCE — Three days after going to Providence police, a homeless man told a District Court judge on Monday that he was ready to plead to the murder of an Army veteran in South Providence — nearly 24 years ago.

The police had questioned Daniel Serrano soon after the murder of 32-year-old Michael Holliday in 1990, but there wasn’t enough evidence at the time to make him a suspect.

That changed on Friday, when Serrano, now 65, walked into the station and, according to the police, said things about the murder that only someone who’d been there would know.

Maj. David Lapatin said that Serrano told them he’d killed Holliday by mistake — he’d intended to beat another man who’d been harassing him.

As some of Holliday’s family watched the arraignment, Serrano told Judge Stephen M. Isherwood: “I’ll wrap it up and plea.”

The public defender quickly stopped him, and the judge told Serrano that no plea is entered now. Serrano is being held without bail until a hearing on Jan. 13. As he was led in shackles out of the courtroom, he stared out into the crowd where Holliday’s family was sitting.

The relatives declined to comment to the media.

A workman had discovered Holliday’s body in a vacant third-floor apartment at 27 Somerset St. in South Providence on Feb. 24, 1990.

Holliday had grown up in Providence, graduated from Central High School and joined the Army, where he was assigned to South Korea for several years. He later fell on hard times and, at the time of his death, was known to the police for a record of forgery and counterfeiting charges during the 1980s.

Holliday’s murder was one of 31 homicides in Providence that year, and one that was never solved.

Serrano is known as one of the city’s street people, with a history of arrests for drugs, breaking and entering, and carrying a gun.

The police said that Serrano told them that he was motivated to come forward, after all these years, by a sense of guilt. That, and he talked about finding God.